Ready to make AI content? Ask these five questions first.

GenAI feels borderline magical, and the pace of its evolution is overwhelming. No marketer can ignore it, and no marketer can purport to be an expert on the thousands of available tools, plugins, and features available.

That said, there are universal truths about content creation and distribution – truths that can be applied to any tool and any technology, including AI. As experts on content strategy, we’re sharing what we’ve learned to guide and protect your organization as you use AI to help you develop content. The answers to these questions will give you a bonus gift: It’s the outline of your AI content principles.

1. What are the problems I’m solving?

   Before beginning to swap content with AI, make sure you’re trying to solve a problem rather than just jumping on the AI bandwagon. If you’re solving a business or a marketing problem, explore what it is. Here are some thought starters to help you. 

   You are considering AI in order to…

   • Generate more content

   • Increase content quality

   • Increase efficiencies

   • Fill expertise gaps

   • Automate metadata and other “behind the scenes” content

   • Support DEI practices such as alt-text, translations, and transcriptions

2. How will I ensure accuracy?

   Your internal and external stakeholders will want to know the level and intensity of human involvement and oversight when you use AI to help create content.

   Here’s where you take a strong stand to ensure:

   • Brand voice and company values are infused and reflected

   • Legal and regulatory parameters are considered

   • Accuracy and truth are prioritized

   • False or “hallucinated” content isn’t published

   • Sensitive personal information is respected

   • Proprietary company information is secured

   • Intellectual property is protected

3. How will I determine where it makes sense to introduce AI?

   Your content ecosystem has multiple touchpoints where it’s natural to consider — and there’s lower risk to introducing — AI. These touchpoints may include lower-traffic, less-engaged-with content, repeatable and trainable content, and general content that’s not specific to your brand. Today, you should be seeking to use AI as a framework to kickstart human creativity, not replace humans altogether.

   Here are some “green flag” content types to consider:

   • Product, service, and event descriptions  

   • Outlines for blog posts, articles, and newsletters

   • Transcriptions

   • Translations

   • Boilerplate chatbots and FAQs 

   • Data visualizations and presentation building

   • Digital ads and headlines for A/B testing

4. Where should I NOT introduce AI? Where is there risk?

   You’re creating AI content principles not only to help develop guardrails for your creators but also to ensure you’re doing right by your audiences. To that end, there are multiple content types where reliance on AI can bring risk to your organization, impact your reputation, and raise doubts about your credibility.

   “Red flag” AI content can include:

   • Customer testimonials and storytelling

   • Expert-driven or bylined explainers or articles

   • Internal / employee communications

   • Journalistic interviews

   • Qualitative research

   • Content that infringes on intellectual property

5. How can I keep my promise?

   Teams change, processes change, technology changes. Sometimes quickly. To that end, you can keep your commitment to follow your AI content principles with a decision tree. A public-facing decision tree drives accountability, creates team alignment, reinforces your commitment, and builds trust with your internal and external stakeholders. 

   What’s in the decision tree? It starts with the considerations from sections three and four, above.

   • Is this lower-traffic, less-engaged-with content?

   • Is this repeatable and trainable content? 

   • Is this general content that’s not specific to our brand?

   • Is this content that would warrant a disclosure?

   • Does this content rely on our own particular expertise or point of view?

   • Does this content represent the experience of someone who has interacted with us?

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At Program 11, we incorporate AI content principles into our content guidelines for clients ranging from startups to Fortune 100s.

For a free sample AI Content Principles template in Google Docs, click here.